A prominent aspect of many personal computer systems is the graphical user interface (GUI). It is primarily the GUI that the user employs to interact with the computer. Typically, the GUI consists of a desktop, windows, icons, and various types of menus. These menus allow a user to select functionality provided by the computer's software programs. These menus may be presented in a variety of fashions. For example, pull-down menus may be presented to a user in a menu bar.
A menu bar is a portion of the computer display of the GUI, e.g. at the top of the screen, within which several menu options are presented to a user. When the menu is activated, usually by “pointing and clicking” with a mouse, a pull-down menu appears below a menu item in the menu bar.
The choices presented to a user within the menu bar vary according to programs being used. For example, multiple applications may be running on a computer, each of which may present different menu options within a menu bar at the top of the screen. Thus, a user is presented with menu commands related to the operating system (OS) when interacting with the OS, and with a menu relating to a word processing program when operating a word processing program. The menu bar selections change as different applications are selected by the user, or are brought to the foreground.
A difficulty may occur in recognizing the different menu bars for each of a variety of applications that may be running on a computer or that a change between menu bars has taken place. For example, if a user selects the window of an application to bring it to the foreground, the user may not recognize that he has been presented with a new group of menu choices within the menu bar associated with that application. This could be problematic if the user selects a function to be executed from a pull-down menu thinking that another application is the active application.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a GUI that aids a user in recognizing that new choices within the menu bar have been presented to him. It would also be desirable to provide this notification in an aesthetically pleasing manner, while continuing to provide all of the functionality associated with traditional GUIs.